Random Scribbling Notepad : BattleBus Constituencies part one

When we look at the current electoral expenses situation brought to public attention by Channel 4 news, we have to be aware of several things, different groups of people commenting on the situation have different standards as to how they decide which constituencies may be involved in mis-declaration of their expenses, Channel 4 have started from the point that an electoral expenses declaration is only illegal if the undeclared amount brings the total claim above the spending limit, and for this reason they have excluded constituencies where this isn’t the case, however I have worked from Where can we see a bus with activists in a constituency during the short campaign period. So undated photos of Bus activists in constituencies, no matter the effort people have made in getting them to me have to be excluded. (This is the case in both Gower and Brecon & Radnor which I’ve been sent several times)

So the constituencies on the following list aren’t necessarily places where electoral fraud has occurred, but are places where there at least a sign that something has happened that they bear further investigation. There are two ways to get onto this list, firstly there can be a reported police investigation into the events in the constituency. secondly there can be Photos and tweets from Battlebus campaigners saying they were in the constituency as part of the campaign, campaigning for the candidate.

The next thing is there are Two (in a way three) different types of Battlebus Firstly you have the problematic Buses full of activists, shipped into the constituency to be boots on the ground in the parties door knocking, leaflet delivering ground war. These are the Buses that it is alleged to have been mis-declared to avoid campaign spending limits in constituencies.

The second type is the leaders Battlebus, this is properly part of the national campaign and so generally, If the Prime Minister is on the Bus, then it’s not a problem. However during this campaign that is not all it was used for, as I showed here

The third type is the Special advisers bus,, now this is an interesting special case, Were the SPADs paid by their departments during this week or twos campaigning by their departments? If so then they should be declared as a donation of their time., and a bus full of 25 SPADs would add up to around £4000 a day, which would quickly put a dent in a local constituencies spending limit.

So how did I come to put the constituency list together? (the Photos here and social media posts are examples, in most cases There are multiple examples from multiple sources although a few are fast disappearing). so days spent hunting through activists twitter feeds, campaign twitter feeds, MP's Facebook pages. result in the following.

Constituencies

Amber Valley

Reported as being Investigated by the Mirror, Photograph of Bus visiting constituency from https://www.flickr.com/photos/greg-smith/17330950435/in/photostream/ from 2 May 2015